“You know, I was getting dressed to come over here tonight, and I realized that I was here 15 years ago, at the Gotham Awards, and I remember that because it was the first time—it was right before Good Will Hunting came out,” Matt Damon told the crowd at the I.F.P. Gotham Awards on Monday, where he received a career tribute. “And it was, like, the first moment my life got really surreal, because Calvin Klein gave me a suit. For free. And that was the first time that ever happened . . . the first moment my life got really surreal,” he said.

Getting indie films made is not easy, and some of the nominees told us their secrets for getting their projects off the ground.

“I’ve made five features. I funded all the movies myself,” said Alex Karpovsky, a directing nominee for Red Flag. “They’re really low-budget, so I haven’t really had to, you know, bend over backwards or perform illicit sexual acts for anyone to get my movies funded,” he said.

“The truth of the matter is, the easiest way to get a film made is to pay for it yourself,” Mark Duplass explained. “So what I’ve literally done is redesign the whole filmmaking process where I write for people, and I write for props and locations that I already have at my disposal, so that I can make the movie available.”

One of Duplass’s trademark methods of keeping down costs is via his sets. “I’ve been known to, uh, buy some extension cords and lights from Home Depot, and then ‘return’ them 30 days later,” he said, making air quotation marks with his hands. “But, you know, it’s Home Depot—they can afford it!”

“I’m not too proud to beg,” Jack Black said. “But I feel like if you really believe in a project, you find a way. If I have a passion for a story that needs to be told, I’m going to make it—even if I have to pull a crazy and get money out of my own account to make it,” he added. “I haven’t come up against anything that’s blown my mindthat much yet. It’s going to have to be pretty damn good,” Black noted, laughing.

Also honored with career tributes at the Gothams were director David O. Russell, actress Marion Cotillard, and producer Jeff Skoll.

“Winning the audience award at Sundance was life-changing for me,” Russell told VF Daily of his career highlights after picking up his trophy. “I went from being a guy who had a day job to someone who was the lede in the New York Times story that summarized Sundance. And I was able to begin this blessed career, which, you know, I was prepared to go there and just have my film seen, and not be able to pay back my investors. I had to mentally prepare for that. So for it to be able to come out of there with a win, and be able to pay everybody back, that’s a big one,” the director said. “And then my first son was born two months later, which resulted in [Silver Linings Playbook]. He ended up having bipolar issues, and then I end up picking up this book,” he added. “I would have never paid attention to this book if I didn’t have that kid. All those nights, with the tears and the craziness, I would have never, never paid attention to the book.”

Asked how it felt to receive whole-career accolades at the young age of 37, Marion Cotillard just laughed. “Yeah—thank you for mentioning it!” she quipped. “It feels—you know, I’m always very shy about talking about myself when I’m being honored, because I don’t know how to do it,” she said. “I love my work so much, and when I dive in a character, I want to go the deepest, and I’m happy when people like it.”

Damon, at 42, said of his award, “I hope this is like a buoy marker, kind of a halftime thing, and that I can do this for another 15 years. That would be cool.”

And after so much success, whose suit was the Oscar winner wearing on Monday night? “Calvin Klein,” Damon told us. “I actually forgot to say that, because that was what made me think of it—I was putting it on, and I saw it was Calvin Klein, and, you know, it was another free suit,” he said. “That kind of surreal part of my life.”